SOVIET TURMOIL

SOVIET TURMOIL; For NATO, Concerns Stay

Published: September 4, 1991

COLOGNE, Germany, Sept. 3—
The commander of the United States Army in Europe said today that Soviet instability rather than Moscow's war machine was now NATO's biggest concern.

The commander, Gen. Crosbie Saint, greeting troops arriving for maneuvers in Germany, said the upheaval in the Soviet Union made it all the more important for the Western alliance to stick together and Washington to support its European partners.

"We need to stay the course, demonstrate that we are together in these uncertain times," General Saint told soldiers at the military section of Cologne airport.

"These are unstable times," he said to the troops arriving from New Jersey in the first exercise in airlifting troops to Germany since its unification last October.

General Saint was asked by reporters where the enemy was now that the Warsaw Pact had disbanded and the old foe of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was falling apart. "The enemy is instability, uncertainty," he replied.

Asked if the Soviet breakup meant fewer or greater risks, he said: "You really can't tell right now. They haven't sorted it out themselves."